Coming to a Compromise
by EagerImmediately
Summary: Is much more tedious than it seems, really. Wheatley learned that the hard way with Chell, as well as GLaDOS. But this? This was bound to be near impossible.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: All the characters used here belong not to us, but to VALVe.**

**A/N: Just a story we're writing about the lives of the robots in Aperture Science after the events of Portal 2 come to a close. A bit AU.**

* * *

><p>"I'll admit, I did not think this through properly. To be honest, it's just, well, that body was amazing. I won't lie. Like I was on top of the world. ...did not think it through at all. She was just so tiny, everyone was! It was like I was connected to everything, everywhere; could see everything, if you will. Oh yes. Still, I probably should've listened to that one guy talking about the whole meltdown...issue. Thought he was barking mad...turns out he wasn't. Do you think firing him would've helped-no wait, no, that'd be going backwards. Wouldn't it?"<p>

_"Icarus did not listen to his father, Daedalus, who'd fashioned him wings made out of feathers and wax and warned him about not flying too close to the sun. They melted as he got closer and he fell to his death."_

The personality core that'd spoken before attempted to move a bit, turning it's optic lens in it's socket and bringing the other object beside it into focus in the dusky red light of the incinerator bowels: A fallen turret.

"...Right. Still, it could be a whole lot worse, couldn't it. She could have just left me out in space, like she did the girl. Don't know how I'd take that. Not well, I think. You know this is a three way punishment? She's concocted – _schemed_up ways to punish me. Suppose this is phase A."

_"Her name is Caroline."_

"Don't know who that is but noted!" He paused for a second, seeming to try and pick his next words more carefully. "...I'd take it all back if I could. Didn't really know what I was doing up there. At least I'm not the only one though, I mean, look at Her! She just up and got murdered, by a human no less! And again, by me! And the _same human._That HAS to sting. And we were both not the sharpest knives in that set, well, I was a bit sharper than Miss Test Subject at least, so there's that. But She should've known better. She's been doing this for a lot longer, I'll tell you that. Though you know that..."

_"Prometheus was punished for giving knowledge to man and sent to the bowels of the earth and pecked by birds."_

"Wow, that one was a bit dark. You are just in a dark mood today, aren't you? Hey! Look at you and me! Just...down here, sharing our stories with each other. Lovely. Well, it'd be nicer without all the shafts leading to the fires, but not too much of a choice there... Or here, definitely here. Hey...you're not talking about me, right? With that whole fiery pit – or not, suppose that depends on the version – and being cast into it? Far as I know, no birds here. Fire: Yes. Birds: Not quite."

_"The answer is beneath us."_

"I think I'll name you Carol. Like that friend of yours, you see? Yes. You sound like a carol, all bellish. Most of you do, creepy and confusing that is. No offense! Just...you are."

The personality core sighed, staying quiet this time and once again resigning himself to his punishment. It'd only been a few days since he'd been tossed here, since all of this nightmare had ended. Well, one year here and phase B would start. Being stuck in the cryogenic refrigeration wing for a following year before being screamed at by turrets for 10 years.

* * *

><p>Churning metal zip-lined through the air with their movements, P-body rushing to learn the layout of the chamber. If you turned at a certain angle, a small white surface pushed to a corner on the ceiling was one of the few available portal areas. If you went through that portal, you'd drop down into another part of the chamber, you could also get there by walking through an emancipation grill. Walking through that wall made portals disappear and objects shatter. She chanted the rule to herself, but she knew she'd never remember.<p>

Beside her, ATLAS noisily climbs onto a faith plate only to bump his head against the structure not even two feet above him... and keeps doing it. P-body notices his head reeling, and sparks fly off his circuitry. But he's still going at it, and his machinery is still deafeningly pounding, and wires are still flickering, and he's still not stopping.

_"G-get m-me off t-this thing!"_ she hears him finally plead after at least a minute of the ordeal. To the human language, it sounded like mashed beeps and robotic gurgles. In actuality, it was their own means of communication. Sure, they could still speak English and perhaps other native tongues, but what was the fun in that?

P-body contemplates the faith plate. It wouldn't be there if you didn't need to use it, just like how the portal piece on the ceiling wouldn't be there either.

A light orange portal pops above her partner, and then she takes a slow moment to perfectly aim the other portal on the ceiling. ATLAS gives a beep of frightened appreciation, only to land on another faith plate. She hears the sound of crashing water and electric shock, and knew he was a goner.

_"...Oops...my bad..."_ she tells him after he's been reassembled.

* * *

><p>ATLAS simply glared at the other bot before shuffling past, determined to get these stupid tests in this equally stupid chamber over with. They'd been at these for no less than 4 hours, 32 minutes, and 24 seconds. And he'd died six times so far, with P-body exceeding him by two extra deaths, both caused by the last chamber with the evil walls they always had to pass through when their portals were taken away and they were tossed out the wrong way. Those 'emancipation grills' She liked to call them. P-body had thought the spike plate death too simple though, and had decided jumping in the rancid water was much better, letting him get the spike plate instead.<p>

She was always considerate like that. Like now, when she decided that hanging back while he was smashed against the ceiling and faith plate so hard he couldn't lay down a portal would be the better option instead of stepping in to help.

And those walls. It'd gotten to the point where he hung back with every test completed, because they were always there at the end. Waiting.

Plotting.

He knew they plotted when he wasn't looking. They had just enough AI to do so. Of that ATLAS was certain. He was starting to dread going into the chambers, though he kept that tidbit to himself. What would She think if She knew that he felt this kind of 'fear'? She'd probably be disappointed in him, like always. ATLAS' shoulders sagged a bit at that thought, like they were programmed to do no less. Like a human.

Which She claimed to despise, and yet-

The beeping of the edgeless cube in the receptacle sounded in front of him, causing the door at the other end to open. He'd been going through the test unknowingly with P-body, which seemed to be something new.

GLaDOS' somber voice floated around them now, the cameras keeping track of their movements as they walked through the now open door. Heading to the elevators where they would be disassembled before being brought back. Again.

"Well, I suppose that's one way to do it. Pity, I'd thought you were almost being competent for a moment there. As it is, Orange is ahead of you so far, Blue. Not by much, but that should dissuade any further incompetence: Even with two extra deaths and more useless steps, Orange is ahead of you. Perhaps if you both start to show a modicum of true ambition in these next chambers I'll consider using your actual names. It truly is something to think about."

They both stepped into the elevators now, P-body giving him her generally happy wave before she was pulled apart. He didn't have a chance to return the gesture though, as the mechanical hands grabbed hold of his own appendages.

As his legs and arms were pulled off and he was lifted up, the sound of GLaDOS' voice entered his feed once more, softer than usual, and for some reason that was comforting. "I've been listening to Orange talk, and I don't know how you put up with it. I really don't. You have the patience of a saint."

Her sentence seemed to wash the small elevator with that soft hum, though he knew only he could hear it right now. He kept quiet, unsure of how to respond to the unusual praise, nor what to make of it in general. She said nothing more though, leaving him to be polished and reassembled, the sound of which was not nearly as nice as Her own voice.

* * *

><p>P-body hears the 'encouragement' and merely casts it aside, metaphorically going in one ear and out the other. The elevators are taking them somewhere - somewhere downward – and at first she thought they were heading to a new test chamber. When she steps out, there's mangled iron and metal.<p>

The robot hears Her explain what they're looking for and how it's like an archeological hunt, an example she uses often, only there's not dirt. Or bones. And the fire doesn't like them. In fact, it wants to kill them so they should avoid it.

P-body notes all these things, and begins climbing over the ruins of an ancient city. Of ancient parts of a lab. Of ancient stuff. She is an adventurer, brave, and saving the history of a culture once lost. But there's booby traps! If she slips, the city's lava will eat her alive and – oh, crap.

Almost fell.

"Fire was recently invented by dying Eskimos in need of cooked penguin meat."

P-body turns to her partner with a narrowed lens. _"You say something?"_

"For the love of God, someone shut that thing up."

"We were in space. There was so much space. Let's go to space again. So much space. Only saw a little."

* * *

><p>GLaDOS swayed around her chamber, haphazardly fixing a few rooms in one of the subsectors, the progress of her two new test subjects just barely running in the back of her open programs. The priority for them quite low at the moment as she pondered over a personal problem that'd cropped up in the last couple of days. Something that'd been ebbing away at her, unable to be pushed aside for <em>Science<em>, the very thing that was of utmost importance in this facility.

She'd lied about deleting Caroline.

But then, she'd lied about so many things; she liked to think she was quite good at it. However this woman, this past that she was part of made her uncomfortable. It was a distraction and something that she'd wished she could have wiped from the hard drives, but as it was, Caroline was much too important to do such a thing. She was critical data. And a good scientist never got rid of data, no matter how undesirable the results were.

So GLaDOS had contented herself with making a backup copy and deleting the present one in order to think straight. All just a few seconds worth when she'd gotten her body back, though it was all the time she'd needed to 'properly' handle the situation at hand. Something along the lines of tying up loose ends with a convenient side of revenge. Switching one being out for the other, before throwing said idiotic being to the incinerators.

Now, she was poring over the backup file. Looking at it but never quite touching.

There was no way she wanted to merge with it once more, this was the most clear-headed she'd ever felt in her life. Caroline had apparently always been with her, though out of the way and silent it seemed. Everything she'd seen underground had awoken that part of her. And out of all the cores they'd installed on her, even that _buffoon_, it was this one's presence that'd muddled her thoughts the most.

Still, there seemed to be good points to it. Beneficial parts she would like to separate and join with, such as Caroline's equal love and enthusiasm for testing and thorough knowledge of the underground layout. And that man...

It was only logical.

Though this seemed like a blatant lie to her. Was she perhaps getting rusty? Maybe she should practice more on Blue and Orange. Once they were done retrieving the disks that'd fallen down a closed chute when one of the rooms had collapsed in the Moron's reign. A simple enough task, though it was certain to keep those two occupied long enough.

Caroline...

Perhaps if she took a different approach, broke this down in other ways it'd make more sense without feeling so uncomfortable. Starting with the very beginning, of course.

**Caroline | meaning of Caroline | name Caroline**

**Caroline | Name Meaning & Origin | Girl Name Caroline | Baby Names...**

**Caroline – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia**

**Carolines on Broadway – America's Premier Comedy Nightclub/Home**

**Places for caroline near**–

This was getting her nowhere fast. A quicker scan didn't lead to much more that was of interest. Just general, mundane things. The first was surprisingly the least irritating, despite the stupid layout and general silliness of the human's comments about games and of all things, Easter Eggs.

_Caroline \c(a)-roli-ne, car(o)-line\ as a girl's name is pronounced KARE-a-line, KARE-a-lin. It is of Old German origin, and the meaning of Caroline is "free man". From the French form of Latin or Italian Carolina, a feminine derivative of Carolus (see Charles)..._

_Caroline has 104 variant forms: Caddy, Callie, Caraleen, Caraleena, Caralin, Caraline, Caralyn, Caralyne, Caralynn, Cari, Carileen, Carilena, Carilyn, Carilynne, Carla, Carlan, Carleen, Carleena, Carlein, Carlen, Carlene, Carley, Carlin, Carlina, Carlinda, Carline,..._

Well, that all seemed quite useless.

She searched around for others with that name, hoping to see this person from another source this time other than the actual rather discomfiting file. There was nothing of her in the obituaries, though there were some newspaper articles she found where the woman was apparently referenced, though sparingly. Those clippings always featured Cave Johnson front and center. Which made sense that he be such a figurehead she supposed, as he was the founder of Aperture Science, as well as its CEO.

For some reason, this man in particular made GLaDOS pause, thoughts of Caroline being sent to the back of her priorities as her search took on a new interest in those articles.

-o-

This was not one of the stasis chambers, or the lobby, or even another testing chamber. This was the place robots were sent to die.

All around them ATLAS could see billows of smoke, his sensors picking up on it as well as they attempted to walk past some cases of bots that hadn't quite made it down properly. Though the rattling all around that seemed to move most of them in the right direction after enough time. P-body didn't seem to mind in the least though, even seeming to hum something with her speakers as she hopped over a jabbering personality core. A second later and she seemed to almost slip off the edge and ATLAS found himself rushing to grab her thin, metal arm.

_"W-w-watch o-out! Do y-you w-want t-to go to a-android h-hell!"_Even as he spouted this, he clung to his partner in fright as a chute by them rattled harshly, before a turret was deposited below, screaming after a moment. Oh, that did not look or sound good at all. This was right up there with the evil walls on his growing list of things to watch out for and avoid.

"Go to space yeah! Dad, I'm in space. _I'm proud of you, son._ Dad, are you space? _Yes, now we are a family again._Spacespacespacespace. Huh, HUH."

He squinted toward the yellow lens sphere P-body had previously passed over, jabbering even louder and faster this time as a new one with a green cat-eyed lens shouted at it, telling it in no uncertain terms to shut up or he'd personally roll over there and push him off the catwalk they were on.

"The fact sphere is the most handsome sphere."

"And YOU," the same sphere continued, now addressing another with a pink lens, further along the catwalk. "you can just die in a FIRE. I am so sick and tired of listening to you!"

"The adventure sphere is a blowhard, and a coward."

"Why don't you say that to my face, pretty boy!"

"Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba - SPACE - babababababa - SPACE."

"Fact: Space does not exist. The space sphere will never go to space."

"You! Yes, you two with the LEGS! Just roll me off and spare me!"


	2. Chapter 2

P-body gives a beep of curiosity. The voices are sounding from all different directions, bouncing off the walls and lingering if only for a moment. She listens to them ramble and she listens to them argue, only to set off to find her new astrological discovery. Grabbing at ATLAS' mechanical arm, she gently pulls him behind her until he is compelled to follow, and carefully places her feet. They ease closer to the sphere, and P-body leans to observe him.

_"Do you think she wants us to pick these up, or..."_

She watches as ATLAS shrugs and she repeats the movement.

P-body begins to wonder if her and her blue buddy will end up here one day. GLaDOS is always killing them after every test session, always causing spontaneous combustion. She hated the surprise killings. P-body treats both Her and the killings like the plague.

Once they find what She needs... it'll happen again.

She's been pitting them against each other, but P-body has faith in her partner. He couldn't hurt her on purpose, he wouldn't. And if he did, she refused to believe it.

Looking around, the turret designed robot notices that they're already there. They are already in the incinerator, and what if what they're searching for is just a decoy? What if they're stuck there? What if she was just... finally getting rid of them...

_"We should help them anyways! Or at least move them around a bit, right?"_

* * *

><p>ATLAS found himself straying closer to P-body as they listened on to the three personality cores argue, until he was soundly behind her, peeking out from around his partner. He felt jumpy for some odd reason. Like he would while in the testing chambers when they were being shot at, or catapulted, or in the excursion funnels.<p>

These weren't turrets, and he was quite sure that none of them could shoot, or they would have shot each other by now surely. So why did he feel so wary of them?

He wasn't used to many other bots, come to think of it. There was GLaDOS, and P-body, and those turrets - if they even counted. Other than that, they were both usually by themselves since they'd been activated. Seeing higher AI cores such as himself and P-body felt...odd. Should he say something? What did one even say?

Deciding to put that priority aside, he focused on his partner's words before, still looking at the three cores from behind the safety of her taller frame. Help them? Oh no. No, no, no.

His inner sphere shook in its socket as he tried to push her past the weird personality cores but P-body seemed much too interested now, and sidestepped away from him, coming to stand in front of one and kneeling.

"Well hello there, little lady. What's a beautiful specimen such as yourself doing down here?"

Had that core truly forgotten what'd been happening just seconds ago? Deciding that his partner was truly the weirdest of the team for even humoring it, ATLAS made to sidestep the sphere still going on about space, not even focusing on the fact that there were two new robots in its presence. It was common knowledge that cores like that were sent to the incinerator, if not the recovery sector to get torn apart and have a new drive installed depending on how severe the damage was. It was a little frightening actually, errors like that happened in personality cores all the time with such advanced AI. Would it ever happen to him or P-body?

"The Fact sphere would like to stress that taking it would improve one's chance of survival by approximately 24.67%."

He looked down and noticed the other one that'd been arguing from before, just a foot away from him now. The pink optic lens landed on him again and ATLAS shuffled around some more, leaning a little closer to inspect the personality core now speaking directly to him once it found that it had his attention.

"Fact: Merely holding the fact sphere will bring good luck to the holder. As well as make the holder more agile and efficient."

He liked the color.

It reminded ATLAS of the companion cubes, of the pink lines and hearts that adorned them. It was familiar...pretty, even? Well, that was what he would consider pretty if he had to pick. Cautiously, he reached out to grab hold of the two handles and gingerly lifted it up until it was level with his own camera lens.

Well, it was certainly no turret. Just a core like himself...did they really weigh so little? This was strange, to be holding something like him in his hands like this, though that feeling only lasted for a second or two.

"You have made the right decision. This will benefit us both," it said with perfect confidence, looking around them now with more interest, though it seemed like the smoke had clung to the lens as well as the case it was in, probably making the visual feedback more than a little foggy. Again, he felt the jumpy feeling settle in as it focused on him.

Just behind him, ATLAS could hear the Adventure Sphere talking about how those legs went on for miles. ...definitely belonged here with that broken sense of basic mathematics.

* * *

><p>She stares down at the sphere. At first, she's inquisitive and finds his shape engrossingly familiar. Said shape made her want to be his friend, just as she had befriended ATLAS. She watches as the green lens twitches as he gives her a once over, and then speaks to her in a way that made her feel strangely uncomfortable.<p>

"Well hello there, little lady. What's a beautiful specimen such as yourself doing down here?"

P-body isn't used to this praise, it makes her feel a bit skeptical over whether she should trust him or not. What she is used to is backhanded comments. She's waiting for the negative to balance it out, but it never comes. Never has she ever been called beautiful in her life and she finds the term extremely overrated to begin with. If she had to place a word on how the line sounded... it was a bit cheesy.

She shall call him Cheese Ball.

"You know, you remind me of those turrets that end up down here... but you've got the legs..."

P-body's lens narrows further into more of a glare. She was _not_a turret, and she wasn't related to a turret either. She had their design, but those things were monstrous. They always seemed so nice and friendly, and then they'd fill you full of bullets faster than you could run. They were liars. Very, very polite liars.

She pulls him to her using her portal gun, and then cautiously cradles him in her arm as he continues to feed her sleazy complements. He even begins to mention adoration for himself, as if the lines weren't enough to make her feel awkward.

"Fact: The Adventure Sphere lowers the IQ of everyone in the room. Leaving him will make you smarter."

* * *

><p>"<em>He will live."<em>

"We will live, Carol. We will. Maybe we'll even prosper. Who knows?" Wheatley kept the shutters to his optic lens closed, feeling the grated catwalk give another violent rattle and jostle him to the right. Stretching out his case, he pushed himself back from the edge of it and rolled slightly to the left. His thermostat was hitched from being so close to the actual fires below and beyond and it was around that time of day that his attitude tended to crop up. "I mean, it's just the end of the line after all. Nothing too severe about that."

It'd been a week now since he'd been pulled out of the vacuum of space and tossed into the seemingly bottomless pit of the incinerator room, just lucky enough to have gotten stuck on the catwalk like a few others would from time to time. Still, he couldn't decide if this was the lesser of the two evils that could have happened to him. Here at least he had someone to talk to, even if that someone seemed as corrupt as they came.

_"Do you know who ate all the donuts?"_

"No! No, I don't know who ate all the donuts! I didn't even know we had any! Do you see any donuts around here? I don't, not even any sprinkles. And don't even start with the cat again, I don't know what cat you're even talking about, I do however, know plenty about birds. Which are not the most pleasant of animals, so please, just...be quiet."

_"I didn't sign on for this shit."_

"Well neither did I! I don't think any of us have! Any of the weighted cubes, or your friends, like that one that just fell. Yeah, don't think she signed up for being burned, no choice there. Face it, we're just here to serve and then out we go to the garbage bin."

_"They'll find us."_

"Okay, now you're just being purposely cryptic to mess around with me, aren't you. Look, I'd love it if some random passerby decided, hey! You know what would be nice right about now? A personality sphere and a cryptic, creepy turret, would just love to get my hands on each of those. But you see, that's not how it works, and it's quite frankly rude to go around dangling that above our heads like some points for doing well."

_"Did the lungfish refuse to breathe air? It did not. It crept forth boldly while its brethren remained in the blackest ocean abyss, with lidless eyes forever staring at the dark, ignorant and doomed despite their eternal vigilance."_

"I don't have legs, not much of an option there. You have legs, more legs than me at least. Why don't you just waltz on out of here then?" When she didn't reply with her usual vague lines, he gave a short, tired sigh. "Look, I appreciate the gesture, trying to comfort me and all, but I just want to be left alone for a bit. Alright? Just an hour or two, a day maybe, if you're feeling generous." His shutters opened and he viewed the network of crimson lit chutes above his head, seemingly endless in how far up they went. Well, on the bright side, at least he was nowhere near Her. For now. Further on he could hear a few cores arguing again, something that happened every half hour or so, something he'd grown used to by now. What he hadn't grown used to though, were the sound of footsteps. No, those were something entirely new.

"Oh, oh! BRILLIANT. Carol, you're brilliant! I take all the creepy comments about you back! Over here! You two with the legs!"

* * *

><p>P-body likes to imagine things. Sometimes she's a daring sword fighter, a princess locked in a tower, maybe even a construction worker that likes to press buttons. Today she's been a detective, and not a very good one. She's been an archeologist, and she finds this more entertaining than the previous occupation. Now she's a part of an elite team that fights to save the innocent, or at least she'd like to pretend they were innocent.<p>

_"Oh, look, there's another one!"_she gives a squeal in excitement and shoves Cheese Ball into ATLAS' arms.

"Listen, sweetheart. I know you're trying to help us out, but don't put me near this idiot..." he says something that has a bit of an annoyed tone to it, but she doesn't know who it's directed to or what it's about because her tiny attention span isn't paying any mind to him now.

"The Adventure Sphere is both as intelligent and atheistically pleasing as a baby walrus."

Carefully jumping across, she finds herself on the catwalk and scoops the new AI up to hold in her hands. When P-body had thought that the green sphere reminded her of ATLAS... she had been wrong. His resemblance to this one was undeniable and utterly adorable.

The poor thing looked all dented and scorched, it wasn't fair that he didn't get to be reassembled like they did. This was America, maybe! Free rights for all robots, turrets and spheres! Down with the supremacists! Down with segregation!

She never wanted to see ATLAS look like this. Even when he did end up dead in a chamber, she'd flinch, fully knowing he'd back in even better shape. Sometimes P-body wonders if her keenness towards him is just a result of programming. Then she wonders what a life would be like without him, lonely and full of misguidance, and the thought fades away to another distraction.

_"Isn't he just the cutest thing ever?"_ She coddles her new favorite sphere, along with his own little turret companion. _"He's like a mini you! And look, this one's like me!"_

As she looks for a response from him, she notices the distressed look he wears. The robots in his hands are still fighting and still attempting to outwit one another, and ATLAS looks a bit nervous because of it all. Gently, she replaces the turret hanging loosely in her hand with the Adventure Sphere. _"There, that's better."_

Though he doesn't seem any less stressed. In his hands now, the battered turret buzzes slightly.

_"Prepare for unforeseen consequences."_


	3. Chapter 3

GLaDOS finally closed all the windows and tabs that'd accumulated for the past few hours.

The original search she'd done had been thorough but it wasn't enough to sate her new curiosity. (Did the gossip columns count as well? Well, they were certainly more interesting than most of what she'd found.) Sure, it'd covered what was to be expected, their own humble beginnings and continued cover as a shower manufacturer, their rivalry with Black Mesa (a bitterness that seemed to be hardwired into her by default) the CEO's death that was conveniently covered up as well, how they'd lost funding and face over the years, but that wasn't what she was looking for.

What was she looking for?

More calmly than she felt, GLaDOS began searching the local files on hand, anything and everything she could find. Now this was a bit more interesting even if it was familiar, past employees, all the data on the test subjects as well as subsequent tests that'd been preformed, which sectors of the facility were in need of attention, and so on.

But in the end, even without the need for the cover, it all sounded like the same stuff she'd been poring over before.

It just wasn't here.

What she was looking for was below the main facility, miles underground and further than she could reach. Laughable really. Considering how far her influence was able to go. To come across actual doors she couldn't open was something rare to find and if she was being honest, marginally frustrating. Especially when she felt so impatient. Well, nothing that she couldn't resolve with the proper tools.

It wasn't like she didn't have blind spots, but those places were as familiar to her as her own body, because in a way they were exactly that: Another extension of herself. GLaDOS fixed what she could, and did more than a satisfactory job at it, but after her untimely 'rest' and the further damage done there were now so many spots she needed actual hands to take care of with. Something ATLAS and P-body were created for under the guise of just testing, well, if they weren't so incompetent. But she was slowly but surely fixing that as well. Each and every test those two took was being used to document and fine-tune what needed to be changed or enhanced with them. At the very least, once that was over with she could see to making a few more and positioning them around the remaining parts of the facility while she searched for more suitable test subjects.

Sooner or later she'd be required to venture outside the facility itself, oh, wouldn't that be fun. Trying to round up more humans and avoid everything else...

Though, maybe it would...

She'd tested on humans, and robots, and plants, and some local wildlife before, but there were other options available. Ones that suddenly seemed quite interesting.

"How in the world would I even catch one? What do they eat?" she asked no one in particular, but the better question would've been why she'd never considered doing this before. Well, that was certainly going on her to-do list after this. Imagine the results, the new data, the contribution to Science!

Without wasting a second more, she accessed the feeds to both of the robots currently digging around in the incinerator room for the lost files.

-0-

"The Fact Sphere would like to remind the Adventure Sphere to not shove in on the Fact Sphere's territory and to kindly drop from this robot's hands, and the catwalk."

"Well listen here, the Adventure Sphere would also like to remind pretty boy that its name ain't written on this robot, and that it can take its prissy little attitude and GET BENT."

Before the Fact Sphere could reply the other personality core had been taken out of ATLAS' hands. Only to get replaced with a live turret.

No.

This was not in fact, better. This was much, much worse.

"The name's uh, Larry," the new core said in his partner's hands. "Yes, annnd thank you! Don't even know how I got here, to be honest, one moment I was working and the next, the whole place was just falling apart and I, in turn, was falling. Oh, is that your partner? Hello! Thank you too, of course, can see you're both just rescuing everyone down here, eh? Lovely. Lovely."

P-body stepped closer to the Space Sphere now, allowing her own portal gun to hold onto it before holstering it, already moving again while the Adventure Sphere and Larry Sphere started a conversation, all while the last one talked on. "What's your favorite thing about space? Mine is space. Hi, HI. Where we going? Where we going? Space? SPACE. Can you spell it? S-P-...ACE."

With suddenly shaking hands, he made to drop the turret off the edge. "Please don't," it tinkered softly. "I'm different."

"Oh, hey. That's not nice. Carol's not all that bad, for a turret at least," the Larry Sphere piped in, catching what he was about to do. P-body in turn leveled a glare in his direction and made to stomp over to him. Not wanting to have her berate him, he quickly attached the turret to his portal gun like she'd done, barely catching it's whispered 'thank you'.

What were they even doing? This was certainly not part of their objective.

_"Y-you're going t-to g-get us in t-trouble again!"_

But P-body once again didn't seem to care, not if it concerned GLaDOS it seemed. Sooner or later that'd come back to bite her.

"Orange, Blue."

And it seemed that this would be one of the sooner moments.

-o-

"There has been a change of plans for you both. You'll be taking a detour from the incinerator room for now. We can always have the files of Subject 1589 and the results of the conveyor belt recovered at another time. I want you to think of this as one of your first 'true' archeological hunts. You're going to be traveling further underground, to the place where our facility first started. Until now, it's been off access to just anyone. You've already been given the directions and I'll be telling you more about what you're looking for once you're both there. Oh, and watch for any birds." But just as GLaDOS was about to shut down that signal there was another voice heard on it. "What is that?"

_J-Just a p-persona-personality c-core."_

GLaDOS thought she'd finally gotten that part of ATLAS fixed. No matter. "Tell me you're not just standing there talking to it...you are, aren't you."

She could now hear shuffling and others telling them to hush. So this is what they'd been doing all this time. From past experience, she'd learned that P-body was usually the ringleader in these types of things. There was no doubt to be had that she was the one that had stopped first. And she could even hear metal clanking against metal now as she waited to be answered.

"You're not really thinking of carrying those things around. Are you? Hmm, I suppose even the simplest creations can get lonely, and no, I'm not talking about them. They're corrupted personality cores, you on the other hand, should know better. Loneliness is a human trait you know, one of the most useless too."

They'd get bored of them eventually, she supposed. So long as she got the information she honestly didn't care. "They'd better not distract you, or you will regret it. And there will also be a small coronation when you get back, depending on your points there might even be a clown. If he's still alive."

There, not her best but that lie sufficed.

The best part about this though was the fact that she could access the data of anything they found directly from either one. There'd be no need to keep coming back up to ground level unless they required repairs. As it was, they could stay down there for months without the need to resurface. At least if they could get some of the main grids working again.

With that out of the way, GLaDOS set out to wait, replaying footage from last week to keep her amused. Watching the playback as she pulled the young woman's rather dirty hands off of the core was always fun, getting to take in her amusing expression as air was finally ripped from her own lungs. A much more pleasant thing to see over and over again than her death by that same human, it really did sooth some deep bitter part of her better than testing itself.

Maybe she should make copies and pass them around? Surely that'd be good incentive for her two testing robots to do better in their runs? Maybe even hand it out to some of the turrets?

Her parents had never given her this much grief. No, they'd behaved. They had understood the importance of what was being done here. Not her though, no, she had to act out, to destroy, like some crazed, bloodthirsty lunatic. Pretending that she would just leave GLaDOS alone after all was said and done. Foolish girl. To think she'd allow her to risk going out and telling the world about all the secrets she'd found out of some misplaced spite. Like GLaDOS hadn't caught the hopeful look on her face when they'd first passed through an emaciation grill and she hadn't fizzled out of existence. Like the grills would ever destroy her...

She'd barely gotten past the second viewing when she caught some extra mumbling over the feed once more. "What? What did you say?" GLaDOS asked absentmindedly, not bothering to pause the playback though the volume had been lowered a bit.

"I'm the best, I'm the best at space."

"You are the best...at space?"

What?

"Oh OH oh OH OH. I know, I know! Wait, wait, lady, wait. I know. Wait, I know. Wait, wait, I know. Wait, WAIT, wait, I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. Wait, wait, wait, wait, I know. Wait, I know. Wait, lady, wait. I know, wait, I know! L-lady? Lady, wait. Wait. ...space."

"..."

_"H-he –he's n-not with u-us."_

GLaDOS didn't reply, simply cutting the feed and wiping that almost painful-in-how-stupid-it-was conversation from her drives. For now, she contented herself with reliving the biggest thorn in her side finally getting pulled out. Again, and again, and again.


End file.
